Football

Recently I have been conducting some research on my work experience at PushOn. Almost all football clubs use social media. It is an easy way of informing your fans, spreading news and in many cases making money. Social media is rapidly growing, therefore the accounts of football clubs such as Real Madrid, Liverpool fc and Manchester United are growing rapidly in terms of followers/likes e.t.c.

It isn’t just social media where football clubs popularity is increasing, using google trends you can clearly see the increase in searches for football clubs on google since 2004.(Barcelona interest over time worldwide 13/01/16)

(Manchester City interest over time worldwide 13/01/16)

One football club who have some very interesting things going on at the moment are Leicester City. Leicester made the comeback of dreams to prevent relegation at the end of last season, and they have now carried that form into the new season. They stormed to the top of the table and only now, in January, are they starting to trail off. Due to Leicester’s current league success they are becoming better known across Europe as well as the UK. (Interest for Leicester City F.C. over time in the UK 13/01/16)

(Interest for Leicester City F.C. over time worldwide 13/01/16)

Someone who has helped Leicester to their recent success is a man named Jamie Vardy. Jamie Vardy is becoming a bit of a fans favorite not just at Leicester but with anyone that follows the premier league. He has been putting in some excellent performances at Leicester and also broke a premier league record for most consecutive games scored in (11)! Jamie Vardy’s name is getting more and more well known. There are also some phrases associated with him that are going viral. (Jamie Vardy interest over time 13/01/16)(‘Chat shit get banged’ searches over time 13/01/16)

Leicester’s popularity is now allowing them to grow as a football club as they are gaining more searches on google, more Facebook likes and more twitter followers. As they become better known they can bring in more money as well as attracting better players, and in doing so gain more followers. It goes around in a cycle ultimately ending in Leicester being a much more popular club than they were in 2013. Currently Leicester have 292,757 followers and sit in 108th out of all football clubs. This is excellent growth considering that they didn’t make it into the top 150 last year. (Leicester twitter followers 14/01/15)

Leicester’s recent growth on social media means that they attract people to other events associated with the club. This can help charities e.t.c as well as bringing in more money for Leicester. Leicester utilize different social media’s in different intelligent ways as well. You can see that player specific news such as transfer news are posted through twitter first as it is more instant and things like transfers get more re-tweets on twitter than shares on Facebook. However, Facebook is the main platform for posting videos like interviews of the players and also things like the calendar for the year and television schedules generally get more shares and likes on Facebook than on twitter. You can see this using BuzzSumo:(Leicester news shares 14/01/16)

In conclusion, the success that we have seen Leicester produce on the pitch has carried over to their social presence. They are rapidly gaining followers on Facebook and twitter and utilizing it to promote things associated with their football club. Leicester are also using some interesting marketing strategies via their King Power sponsors and that is also increasing popularity. Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez’s popularity is also a big factor in Leicester’s increase of followers e.t.c and it will be interesting to see how the online world reacts if Leicester make a big signing, because that could mean another leap forward in their development online. Only Manchester United have a higher growth rate at the moment in terms of followers and likes and it will be intriguing to see what strategies Leicester implement to keep this growth rate up. I think that big name signings, success on the pitch and more overseas advertising will be the best ways for them to continue developing as a club. In my opinion Leicester will continue to develop as a club but their growth rate will surely slow down. However, everyone thought that their form would have trailed off by November but its January 14th and Leicester are 2nd (Arsenal only ahead on goal difference). I think its fair to say this club has some exciting times ahead.

p.s. if you’re free Friday night i hear that ‘Jamie Vardy’s having a party’